N.J. Court Allows Aid Freeze in State’s Poorest Districts

The New Jersey Supreme Court has granted Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s request to hold funding for the state’s poorest school districts flat for the 2006-07 school year.

In a unanimous May 9 ruling, the state’s high court said the 31 Abbott districts—which got their name from long-running litigation over how to properly fund poor school districts—would have to make do with about the same amount of aid in 2006-07 that they did in 2005-06.

The court ruled that the districts could appeal the budgets the state sets for their districts if they could show that a “demonstrably needed” program would be “substantially impaired” by too little funding.

Gov. Corzine, a Democrat, had sought the flat funding in the face of a projected $4 billion budget shortfall. He said it was part of a larger effort to make sure districts were using their state aid efficiently, and, eventually, to review school funding statewide.